It was gratifying to see July's Hitchin Town Hall Mostly Comedy date with Dr. John Cooper Clarke sell more than our usual venue The Sun's capacity across the weekend's pre-sale - and more still today - thus boding well for how things should continue.
As I've said previously, while I was sure the show would prove popular amongst our audience, there was still a slight hesitation on my part, largely due to the risk that goes with staging an event at a venue that's more expensive to us and over twice our normal capacity. Without going into specifics, it's also easily the biggest fee we've confirmed an act for in our ten year history. That said, the end justified the means as we've already covered that figure in three days of sale-time, which is something we would never have dreamt of when we started the club at The George back in 2008.
The good news is this initial spike in interest affords us the opportunity to relax, safe in the knowledge that the show's cost will be comfortably covered and will most likely sell out (and probably sooner than later). We can now concentrate our energy on filling the rest of July's festival with line-ups that complement it, knowing this show isn't likely to slow down their popularity.
The point is we never want to bring an act to Hitchin for them to see the date as a damp squib and that's always more of a risk when we're using a venue that isn't our regular home, or a different price structure. Thankfully, it seems this show is unlikely to fall foul of either circumstance, which is a relief. Our next job is to tackle the Town Hall's reputation for poor sound, though we're confident the new sound company we're using will take this in their stride.
As I've said previously, while I was sure the show would prove popular amongst our audience, there was still a slight hesitation on my part, largely due to the risk that goes with staging an event at a venue that's more expensive to us and over twice our normal capacity. Without going into specifics, it's also easily the biggest fee we've confirmed an act for in our ten year history. That said, the end justified the means as we've already covered that figure in three days of sale-time, which is something we would never have dreamt of when we started the club at The George back in 2008.
The good news is this initial spike in interest affords us the opportunity to relax, safe in the knowledge that the show's cost will be comfortably covered and will most likely sell out (and probably sooner than later). We can now concentrate our energy on filling the rest of July's festival with line-ups that complement it, knowing this show isn't likely to slow down their popularity.
The point is we never want to bring an act to Hitchin for them to see the date as a damp squib and that's always more of a risk when we're using a venue that isn't our regular home, or a different price structure. Thankfully, it seems this show is unlikely to fall foul of either circumstance, which is a relief. Our next job is to tackle the Town Hall's reputation for poor sound, though we're confident the new sound company we're using will take this in their stride.